Another excellent article by Ian Dunt highlights the cultural tensions between Remainers and Brexiteers, asking why we Remainers are still in a daze.
The details seem so much smaller than the strength of feeling in the country. Why can't we just do what the Brexiters loudly insist, and accept it? Move on. Get with the programme.
It's because this was never about the EU. This was the culture war. It is the single greatest question of our lifetime, the one which defines this moment for the West: do we accept globalisation? Do we share goods and people and culture across the world, or do we retreat into our closed identities? Nativism versus globalism.
He goes on to quote some research which:
... suggests something remarkable is happening to us. Brexit appears to be redefining the British public politically. Everything is on its head. ...
It is hard not to argue with this. Where once the nation was split into left or right, it is now multi-dimensional, at its simplist: Left/Leave, Left/Remain, Right/Remain, Right/Leave. The research actually suggests six psychographic groups:
On one extreme are the two groups most open to immigration and multiculturalism - the Confident Multiculturalists and Mainstream Liberals. On the other extreme, the two groups most hostile to these ideas are Active Enmity and Latent Hostiles. In the middle are Immigrant Ambivalence and Culturally Concerned. As the names imply, they're worried about rapid social change and services, but they're open to being convinced.
Another reason we cannot simply 'get on with it' is because we are being asked to change our traditional roles.
For 41 years, Farage and Co have 'not accepted' the principle of being in the EU and have campaigned against it. Europhiles have not had to campaign as their view prevailed.
Now, the tables are turned. The Brexiteers are (allegedly) in the majority and have no idea how to run things: witness their lack of plan for the future and the rapid departure of the three leading figures. On the other side, the Europhiles are suddenly having to turn themselves into a campaigning body and yet have no idea how to do this, have no leading figure or party around whom they can cohere, and have access to no powerful channels of communication.
Who will be first to solve this conundrum and with what consequences?
